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Now that Hollywood awards season is kicking off with the Golden Globes on Sunday, industry activists have released a how-to guide to dealing with sexual misconduct in entertainment workplaces, including what to avoid – such as meetings in hotel rooms.

Now comes the TIME’S UP Guide to Working in Entertainment, described as a comprehensive primer for industry workers who experience or witness misconduct, including harassment, discrimination, retaliation, unwanted touching, sexual assault and rape.  

The guide was released by the Time’s Up Foundation, the #MeToo-inspired organization founded to address inequality and injustice in entertainment workplaces, on Friday ahead of the Golden Globes ceremony. 

“The entertainment industry is not a typical workplace, so figuring out your rights and options around workplace harassment, discrimination and misconduct can be confusing,” said actor/activist Alyssa Milano, who was consulted on the guide, in a prepared statement.

“As a community, we came together to develop these resources to help people in entertainment understand that no matter your situation, you do have the right to be safe and respected on the job,” she said.

The guide is being released two years after Time’s Up’s first public action, at the 2018 Golden Globes, when activists wore black to highlight issues of workplace discrimination and harassment. 

Tina Tchen, president and CEO of the Time’s Up Foundation, said the foundation gets numerous reports of entertainment workers facing physical, emotional and financial harm in their workplaces.

“This resource is one of many ways Time’s Up is working to ensure everyone is treated with safety, respect, and dignity in the workplace, no matter what work you take on,” Tchen said in a prepared statement.

The guide covers three categories of rights: In auditions, in nude, intimate and sex scenes, and in reporting sexual misconduct and harassment. The guide offers lists of resources (such as sexual harassment and rape hotlines, and the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund), information about rights under laws and also rights under union contracts. 

For instance, what do you do if a casting director proposes meeting in a hotel? Propose instead a “neutral” location in a workplace during work hours, the guide says, adding, “Regardless of the location you agree upon, take a friend with you to the audition.”

What if a casting director asks you to “come back sexier”? First, ask why. 

“If the request is related to the role, it is not necessarily inappropriate or unlawful,” the guide says. “However, you do not have to comply with the request if it makes you uneasy.” If you fear that “inappropriate behavior” will be tolerated on set, don’t take the job. 

When it comes to filming intimate and simulated sex scenes, the guide says the industry has done little to protect “vulnerable” actors from abuse ranging from being denied a cover-up robe to wear between takes to crew members filming sex scenes on their smartphones and then posting it online to being asked to take part in “actual” sex instead of simulated sex.

The guide advises actors to first know their boundaries and what they feel comfortable doing. Get a nudity rider in a contract that includes detailed descriptions of what will be required. 

During preparation and filming, the guide suggests actors request an “intimacy coordinator” for all nude and simulated sex scenes; meaningful consultations with the director and producer regarding those scenes prior to filming; and rehearsals to fully choreograph in advance whatever intimacy is to be filmed.

Actors can also request that during rehearsals, they will verbally consent to all physical contact before it is made. Actors can request that sets be closed during rehearsal and filming of sensitive scenes, meaning “restricted to everyone other than personnel essential to filming the scenes,” with all outside monitors off and active monitors tented.

Actors can also expect all performers to wear “mutually-approved cover-ups” during filmings, such as flesh-colored underwear, modesty patches or pouches, and intimacy barriers or padding so no genital contact ever occurs,” the guide says.

Last-minute script changes, even minor ones, in intimate scenes? Actors can expect the right to approve them.

The section on reporting includes a detailed discussion of what constitutes illegal sexual harassment under state and federal laws, and the pros and cons of reporting it or not reporting it, and deciding to whom it should be reported. 

For instance, there are disadvantages to reporting to your employer, the guide advises.

“The human resources employee you speak with might have a different perspective than you do,” the guide warns. “They may not agree that what happened constitutes harassment or they may feel the behavior is more concerning than you think it is.”

No matter what, the guide says, write everything down: date, time, location, who was there, what was said and by whom being top priority.

“No matter your situation, you have options,” the guide says. “If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t….No role, job or relationship is worth compromising your physical and emotional safety.

“And if something happened to you, we believe you. You are not alone and we are here to help.”

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